hBa miLeSToneS

Bringing the Bar Back to the Community: Habitat for Humanity

ics and preserving the dignity of the profession. It eventually turned to providing services for lawyers. With notable exceptions such as establishing Legal Aid clinics, Law Day programs, and the Houston Lawyer Referral Service, the HBA did not turn its attention to serving the community until 1974, when the HBA instituted “Operation Reachout” to “bring the bar back into the commueffort believed that “lawyers had a professional responsibility to serve the public and give something back to the community.”2 This change in fo-

The HBA began participating in Houston Habitat for Humanity during the 1997-1998 bar year. The Hon. Richard Trevathan was the HBA President, and the Honorable Andrew S. Hanen was the Habitat for Humanity Committee Chair. The first house was part of a special “Blitz Week” during which 100 Habitat for Humanity homes were built in Houston.3 Blitz Week was a component of the Jimmy Carter Work Project and was “the largest effort attempted in the United States.”4

Since 1998, over 4,556 HBA volunteers have helped build 22 houses. Families that have benefitted from the HBA’s Houston Habitat for Humanity projects include single parents, families who were displaced due to freeway construction or hurricanes, and Vietnam Veterans. The HBA funds the building materials and provides volunteers to build the houses.5 In order to qualify for the program, the new homeowners must demonstrate a need for housing, provide up to 250 hours of “sweat equity” with Houston Habitat for Humanity, and meet certain income and credit requirements.6

Judge Andrew S. Hanen, who helped build the first home, said that he could not “fathom an experience more intense or rewarding than the five days many of us spent in June hammering, sawing, and sweating.”7 He noted that the heat was constant, but the construction crew of HBA volunteers was kept going by Gatorade and snacks delivered by the HBA staff and provided by the HBA Auxiliary.8

During the 2006-2007 bar year, the Habitat for Humanity Committee raised money to build two houses in celebration of the committee’s 10-year anniversary. Nancy J. Brown, who was the com-

By anna m. archer

In its early years, the HBA’s primary focus was on legal ethmittee chair that year and had helped build a house in 2006, noted that the “best part was working alongside the homeowner to be.”9 She pointed out that because the new homeowners must pay mortgages and help build Habitat for Humanity homes, “It’s not a handout, it’s a hand up.”10 Brown’s committee recruited 250 volunteers to build the two Habitat homes in 2007, and they worked for three consecutive weekends on new homes for families of a toll authority worker

nity.”1 The HBA leaders behind this

and a childcare worker.11

In 2017, Houston Habitat for Humanity honored the HBA with its inaugural Legacy Award during its 30th Anniversary celebration. The award recognized the HBA’s commitment to building homes for low-income fami-

cus provided immense benefits to the ed to preserve the dignity of our proHouston community in the following if you are interested in giving back to the community fession, the modern HBA has realized years, but perhaps the most concrete through the HBa’s Habitat for Humanity program, the that our dignity is partially tied to servand lasting effect of the HBA’s deci- committee still needs $5,000 to meet its goal to build ing the community in which we live. sion to reach out to the community the HBa’s 23rd Habitat Home in the spring of 2021. Through building Habitat homes, we came 23 years later when the HBA donate at hba.org/habitat. continue the tradition established by built its first Houston Habitat for Humanity house. HBA leaders from the 1870s through today of building an organiza-

lies over the past 20 years.12 While the HBA was originally foundtion that continues to evolve as Houston’s needs evolve. Anna Archer is editor in chief of The Houston Lawyer and a member

of The Houston Lawyer’s history subcommittee

endnotes

1. ERIC L. FREDERICKSON, A COMMITMENT TO PUBLIC SERVICE: THE HISTORY

OF THE HOUSTON BAR ASSOCIATION (1992). 2. Id. 3. The homeowner of the first HBA Habitat House, Alex Lane, paid off the mortgage for this home in June 2013. 4. Christine Nguyen, Habitat for Humanity and Its Home in Houston, HOUS. HIST., Fall 2017, at 13. 5. The materials totaled $45,000 in 1998; they have now increased to $70,000 per house.

The HBA has raised and spent a total of $1,390,000 on Habitat for Humanity houses. 6. Homeownership, Hous. Habitat for Humanity, https://www.houstonhabitat.org/services/ homeownership/ (last visited Aug. 13, 2020); see also Shelley Elias, HBA Helps Build

Someone’s Dream Through Habitat Project, HOUS. LAW. (May-June 1998). 7. Andrew S. Hanen, Habitat: One Hand One Heart One House, HOUS. LAW. (July-Aug. 1998). The HBA originally built these homes in the summer, but now the building typically is completed in the spring. 8. Id. 9. Ruth E. Pillar, Habitat Committee’s Tenth Birthday Has It Seeing Double, HOUS. LAW. (Sep.-Oct. 2006). While homeowners must still provide “sweat equity,” they are no longer required to help build their own home. 10. Id. 11. HBA Habitat Project Celebrates First Decade with Two Homes, HOUS. LAW. (May-June 2007). 12. Press Release, HBA, Houston Habitat for Humanity Honors HBA with First Legacy

Award (Oct. 31, 2017) (on file with the HBA).